Homeless staying longer in winter shelters

Fewer vacant beds meant fewer people overall used facilities

The number of homeless people who used a winter shelter program in North County has decreased by 16 percent over the past four years, according to a report released Wednesday by a group that run’s the region’s shelter network.

The shelters were still at capacity most nights, officials with the group said, and the people who used them tended to stay longer, which meant fewer open beds for others.

The report was prepared by the Alliance for Regional Solutions, which coordinates six North County shelters from December through April. The shelters are in rotating locations in coastal and inland North County and in permanent facilities in Escondido, Vista, Oceanside and Carlsbad.

In 2013-14, the report found, 438 people stayed in the six shelters, which in all have 179 beds.

Of those people, 384 stayed in La Posada de Guadalupe in Carlsbad, Operation Hope in Vista, Bread of Life in Oceanside and Haven House run by Interfaith Community Services in Escondido.

The number of people staying in the shelters has decreased by 85 since 2009-10, when nine more beds were available in the program.

The report does not speculate why the numbers were down, but officials said a comparison with a similar report from 2009-10 may give a clue. Four years ago, people stayed from one to 146 nights, with the average stay 36.

Last winter, people stayed from one to 136 nights, and the average stay was 44.

Craig Jones, chief operating officer for Interfaith Community Services, said the longer stays mean fewer beds were available for new people trying to use the shelters, which usually were at capacity.

“There’s still an obvious need for more capacity for the winter shelter program and emergency shelters in general,” he said.

Although the consequence may be fewer people using the shelters, the longer stays could mean better service to those who do get in, Jones said.

“There has been a conscious effort to improve the depth of programs of assistance for the clients served,” he said. “The more continuity you have, the better follow-up you can have.”

Donald Stump, executive committee for Alliance for Regional Solutions, also said the decline in the number of individuals using the shelters was not an indication that the need had declined.

Like Jones, he also said the longer stays in the shelters was not a bad thing.

“The longer they can stay in the shelters, the better job we can do with case management and getting them resources,” he said.

Over a four-year period, the report also found an increase in the percent of women in shelters and a proportional decrease in men. In 2009-10, women accounted for 31 percent of people in winter shelters, while 37 percent were women this past winter.

One encouraging item in the report, he said, was an increase in the number of people who identify their disability as mental illness.

In this year’s report, 49 percent of the adults who stay in shelters said they had a disability. Of those, 52 percent said their disability was a mental health problem.

Last year, 27 percent of people identified their disability as related to mental health, and Stump said he believes the higher figure this year is more accurate.

“People are either admitting it more or we’re doing a better job of screening,” Stump said. “If people are talking about it, then we can address it.”

Stump said service agencies are trying to create better connections with mental health providers to address the problem regionally, and having more people open to treatment will help fight chronic homelessness.

In other findings in the report, single mothers made up 71 percent of the households in the shelters last winter, the same as the previous year.

In last year’s report, 34 percent of females and 4 percent of males said they were victims of domestic violence. This past winter, 37 percent of females and 4 percent of males said they were domestic violence victims.

The reason given for being homeless also has changed in one year. In the 2012-13 report, 30 percent of people said they were homeless because of unemployment, a 15 percent drop from the previous year.

The trend continued this past winter, when 21 percent of people said they were homeless because of unemployment.

Seventeen percent said they were homeless because of family issues, an increase of 7 percent.

For the second year in a row, 10 percent of people cited unemployment/low income as why they were homeless. Two years ago, only 3 percent of people in the shelter cited unemployment/low income as the reason.